1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet textile printing system for performing textile printing on a printing object formed by a cloth product such as a T-shirt.
2. Related Background Art
As conventional methods of printing images (including characters and symbols) on cloth products (clothing and the like) such as T-shirts, screen printing, iron printing (transfer printing), and the like are known.
In the above screen printing method, a paste colored with a pigment is applied to a printing object (printing target) through a permeable portion formed on a screen in a predetermined pattern, and the paste is fixed in the printing object by using the binding force of the paste. When multicolor printing is to be performed by this screen printing method, a plurality of screen plates corresponding to the respective colors are used for recoating.
In the above iron printing method, after a picture is printed on a transfer sheet by a color toner copying machine, ink-jet printer, or the like, the printed transfer sheet is transferred onto a cloth product (clothing or the like) such as a T-shirt by hot press.
Recently, a digital textile printing method is often used. In this method, after an image is directly printed on a piece of cloth having undergone a pre-process, by using an ink-jet printer, and the printed cloth is post-processed, the cloth is sewn into clothing (cloth product) such as a T-shirt. Such digital textile printing methods using conventional ink-jet printers are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-336466 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,579.
In the screen printing method, however, a plurality of special plates corresponding to different designs and colors are required, and it takes much time and cost to manufacture such plates. This method is therefore unsuitable for large variety of and small amount of production and shortening of a supply period. In addition, many steps are required to store and manage plates in printing (copying) the same image on a plurality of cloth products. Furthermore, the above screen printing method suffers a technical problem. That is, it is difficult to print a high-resolution picture.
In the above iron printing method, since the resin of a transfer sheet is caused to adhere to the surface of a printing object in the printing process, the printing object loses air permeability and becomes tough. Another technical problem is that when a picture is printed on clothing such as a T-shirt, the clothing becomes impervious to sweat and hence become uncomfortable. Furthermore, the washing fastness of the printing object deteriorates; when the printing object is washed, it quickly becomes worn.
The above digital textile printing method has been proposed to solve the above drawbacks. However, to perform textile printing on a printing object such as clothing made of fibers, many processes including a pre-process, a color development fixing process and a post-process such as cleaning are required. In addition, owing to the difficulty of the process method and the problem associated with the process time, a printing object on which a picture is printed while the printing object remains as a piece of cloth must be sewn into a cloth product. For this reason, the conventional digital textile printing method has a difficulty in realizing on-demand operation in theme parks, tourist resorts, and the like.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact, inexpensive ink-jet textile printing system which can easily perform textile printing on a cloth product such as a T-shirt on demand.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compact, inexpensive ink-jet textile printing system in which a printing object, only a specific printing target range of which has undergone a partial pre-process, is stocked as a standard product, and a printing tray for conveying the printing object while positioning the partial pre-process portion of the printing object with respect to an ink-jet printing mechanism is used in printing operation, whereby a picture can be directly printed on the printing object, on-demand textile printing is facilitated by eliminating the necessity of the steps of applying a preconditioning agent and drying it in printing operation to easily perform textile printing on the cloth product such as a T-shirt on demand, the demands for original prints can be satisfied, and new demands for print cloth products as commemorative goods can be created in tourist resorts, theme parks, and the like.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which can easily form a compact, inexpensive textile printing system capable of printing a high-resolution digital picture in a specific printing target range of a cloth product such as a T-shirt without a plate on demand with comfort and high washing fastness being ensured.
It is still another object to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which print on a printing object, only a specific printing target range of which has undergone a partial pre-process, while positioning the partial pre-process portion for printing by using a printing tray, thereby minimizing the flat area of the printing tray in accordance with the partial pre-process portion and allowing the apparatus to be easily installed in a store or the like.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which can clean only a partial pre-process portion using a compact cleaning means in the cleaning step by setting only a specific printing target range as a partial pre-process portion, and need only perform almost all steps from a pre-process to cleaning for only the partial pre-process portion, thereby facilitating the textile printing process and reducing the size of the textile printing apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which can easily keep a partial pre-process portion of a printing object formed by a cloth product such as a T-shirt flat with respect to a printing mechanism and position the partial pre-process portion with respect to the printing mechanism, and can accurately print a printing picture at a specific position.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which can prevent a printing object from being smeared with ink or the like by hiding non-print portions inside a printing tray.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which can easily realize on-demand operation by directly printing on a printing object formed by a cloth product (clothing or the like) such as a standard T-shirt using an ink-jet printing mechanism, and prevent the problem of overstocked inventories by processing printing objects in accordance with the demand.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet textile printing apparatus and ink-jet textile printing method which improve operability by making it easy to mount a printing object on a printing tray.